When I was a boy my family would travelInta’ Western Kentucky where my parents were bornTo a lost little town there that’s often rememberedSo many times that my memory drew warn

And daddy won’t me take me back to Mulingburg CountyDown by the green river where Paradise layHe said, I’m sorry my son but yer too late in askin’Mr. Peabodys’ coal trains hauled it away

Well, sometimes we travel right down the green riverTo the abandoned old prison down by Gadry HillWhere the air smelled like snakes, we’d shoot off pistolsAhh, but empty pop bottles is all we would kill

And daddy won’t me take me back to Mulingburg CountyDown by the green river where paradise layHe said, I’m sorry my son but yer too late in askin’Mr. Peabodys’ coal train has hauled it away

Well, the coal company came with the worlds largest shovelThey tortured the timber and stripped all of the landLord, they dug for their coal ’til the ground was forsakenThen wrote it all down as a the ‘Progress Of Man’

So daddy won’t you take me back to Mulingburg CountyDown by the green river where Paradise layHe said, I’m sorry my son but yer too late in askin’Mr. Peabodys’ coal trains hauled it away

When I die let my ashes float down the green riverLet my soul roll on up to the Rochester DamI’ll be halfway to heaven with Paradise waitin’Just 5 miles away from wherever I am

Ohh, and daddy won’t you take me back to Mulingburg CountyDown by the green river where Paradise layHe said, I’m sorry my son but yer too late in askin’Mr. Peabodys’ coal train has hauled it away

He said, I’m sorry my son but yer too late in askin’Mr. Peabodys coal train has hauled it awayOh, Mr. Peabodys’ coal train has hauled it away